Giant Oreo Cake

October 13, 2012

When it comes to birthday cake preferences my family could not have more dissimilar tastes. My mom, being a July birthday girl likes fruit or berry cakes, Tiramisu is my all-time favorite, Christina and I still dream of our ice cream cakes we got as kids and Moritz just happens to like anything with a buttercream frosting or with oreos…and when you combine those two you can bet that he’s going to be the happiest human being around.

So of course for Mo’s 18th birthday I made him a Giant Oreo Cake with a oreo filling and a dark chocolate buttercream frosting on top. I would have liked to add a few oreos to the chocolate cake batter but I thought that the 20 oreos in the filling will have to do the job.

I was surprised by how rich the cake ended up being. I’m usually not one to request a small slather of cake but will gladly eat my way through a gigantic portion, but this ended up being quite a monster. To add some tanginess to the filling I used cream cheese instead of only buttercream and mixed in the crushed oreos just before filling the cake. In an attempt to get the almost black color of an oreo I added some cocoa powder to the dark chocolate frosting, which admittedly didn’t darken the chocolate as much as I would have like it to but it helped.

The ingredients for the cake and filling can be halved if you prefer a “lighter” version.

30-35g confectioner’s sugar, sifted {exact amount depends on the softness of the frosting}

180g dark or semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Instructions:

Chocolate Cake:

Preheat the oven to 175° and prepare 2 26cm cake tins {I used silicone cake forms which are absolutely stick-free}. Whisk together the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder and the salt. Set aside.

Add the egg yolks to a large bowl and the egg whites to a separate bowl. Using an electric mixer beat the yolks until airy. Then set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter and the brown sugar until fluffy. Next add the egg yolks and beat until well incorporated. Then add half of the dry ingredients and slowly continue to beat until incorporated. Then add half of the sour cream and hold of the vanilla extract. Beat until smooth and continue until all the ingredients have been incorporated in the batter. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer beat the eggs whites until peaks form. Fold in the egg white in with the batter.

Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 35-40 minutes. Before removing the cake from the pan let it cool for about 15-20 minutes. Before filling and frosting let it cool completely.

Oreo Filling:

Using an electric mixer beat cream cheese and butter until the consistency is smooth. Reduce the speed before adding the sifted sugar.

Then add the vanilla, mix until combined.

Fill the oreos into a ziplock bag and throw them against the kitchen counter until they’ve crumbled. You can choose the size of oreo chunks in the filling, mine were still quite chunky.

Next pour the oreos into the bowl with the filling and gently stir until incorporated.

Pour most of the filling onto one of the cakes. Save some to fine-tune once the cake is completely frosted.

Dark Chocolate Frosting:

In a small bowl combine the the hot water and cocoa powder. Stir until smooth and the cocoa has dissolved completely. Set aside.

Using a mixer beat the butter and sugar until airy and fluffy.

Add the melted {but cooled} dark chocolate and beat until the frosting is smooth.

Beat in the dissolved cocoa at the end to darken the frosting.

Once the cake is filled, carefully frost the top and outside of the cake. Store the cake in the fridge.